Stop-motion for steam-engines



J.T AGKLEY. I STOP MOTION FOR STEAM ENGINES.

No. 16,779. Patented Mar. 10, 1857.

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JOHN T. ACKLEY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

STOP-MOTION FOR STEAM-ENGINES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 16,779, dated March 10, 1857.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J OHN T. AoKLEY, of the city of Philadelphia andState of Penn sylvania, have invented a new and Improved Stop-Motion forSteam-Engines; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full,clear, and eXact description of the same, reference being had to theaccompanying drawing and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

My invention relates to a means of suddenly stopping the motion of steamengines when a defect or breakage takes place in any of the workingparts, and consists in the employment of a rod furnished with nuts orcollars so arranged on one of the guides of the engine that thecrosshead may, when any defect or breakage takes place in any of themain working parts of the engine, strike one or other of the said nuts,thereby moving the rod and operating a lever in such a manner as toallow another lever to suddenly move and throw out of gear the eccentricrod or otherwise close a valve so as to cut off the supply of steam fromthe cylinder, thereby preventing further damage.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to make and use myinvention I will now proceed to describe its construction and operation.

On reference to the drawing which forms a part of this specification,Figure 1 is a front view of a portion of a vertical steam engine with myimproved stop motion attached to the same. Fig. 2, a sectional edge viewon the line 1,2 (Fig. 1). Fig. 3, a ground plan, and Figs. 4 and 5detached sectional views showing one of the levers in difi'erentpositions.

The same letters of reference allude to similar parts throughout theseveral views.

A is the steam cylinder resting on and secured to the base B.

C is the piston rod and D the crosshead arranged to slide in the guidesE and E in the usual manner. The guide E has two projections a a inwhich slides the perpendicular rod G which also passes freely through alug b on one end of the crosshead D, the rod is furnished with two nutsor collars e, e, and has its lower end con nected in any convenientmanner to the end of the lever A. This lever has notches or recesses fand g which rest in the forks h and i on each end of the cross-barjwhich is secured to and forms a part of the pillar J the latter beingpermanently attached to the base plate B. Two spiral springs 70, iswhich are attached at one end to projections on the pillar J and at theother end to the lever H serve to retain the latter in the positionshown in Fig. 1, until it is disturbed by the action of the crosshead Dand rod G as hereafter described. Underneath the lever H and at rightangles to the same is another lever L which is jointed to lugs Z Z onthe pillar J; one arm of this lever is connected by means of a spiralspring M to a staple in the base plate, the other arm is connected bymeans of a rod N to the eccentric rod of the steam engine or to thethrottle valve or other stop valve in the steam pipe.

On the top of the lever L is a projection m which is caused by thespiral spring M to bear against the side of the lever H and is soarranged that when the said lever H is disturbed, by the actiondescribed hereafter, the project-ion m will be free from contact withthe side of the lever, when the spiral spring M will so operate thelever L as to raise the rod N thereby throwing out of gear the eccentricrod or otherwise closing a stop valve.

Communicating with the interior of the cylinder at a point near the topof the same and above the piston when the latter is in its most elevatedposition, as well as at a point near the bottom of the cylinder belowthe piston when the latter is at its lowest position, are orificeshaving cone shaped seats for receiving the valves n and 91/, these areconnected to the vertical arms of the bell-crank levers 0 and 0 whichhave their fulcrums onbrackets p and 7)" projecting from the cylinder A.The horizontal arms of the two bell crank levers are connected togetherby means of the rod q to which is attached the weight 1" the latterbeing more than sufficient to resist the pres sure of the steam in thecylinder against the valves 11. and n. To the horizontal arm of theupper bell-crank lever 79 is jointed the rod 8 which is guided by aprojection 16 on the cross-piece j, and which comes in con tact whenraised with the underside of the lever H.

I would here remark that the main cause of excessive damage to steamengines when any of the working parts become broken, or otherwise out oforder is the difficulty of shut-ting ofi the steam suddenly enough toprevent further damage. Thus should the crank pin or connecting rod of asteam engme running at full speed become broken there is everypossibility of the cylinder base plate and framework being also brokenand of the whole engine becoming a complete wreck. This can beaccomplished by the above described arrangement the operation of whichis as follows: The nuts 0 and e are so adjusted on the rod G that whenthe engine is in proper working order the lug b on the crosshead D shallbe in close proximity to, but not in immediate contact with the saidnuts, at the end of the upward and downward stroke. Should any of thekeys or other fastenings of the working parts become loose or fracturedthe piston will ascend or descend beyond its usual and originallyregulated limits, and the lug Z) must necessarily strike either theupper nut c or lower nut c on the rod G. Should the lower nut be struck,the fork 71 becomes the fulcrum of the lever H, and should the upper nutbe struck the fork it becomes the fulcrum. In both instances howeverthat part of the lever immediately over the second lever L is raised andconsequently the projection m on the latter is released from contactwith the side of the first lever thus allowing the spring M to act onthe lever L so as to raise the rod N and either throw the eccentric rodout of gear or close a stop valve, thus cutting off the steam from thecylinder preventing further damage.

Should an excessive amount of water ac- It will now be seen that theabove dc scribed arrangement not only gives notice to the attendantengineer when even a slight derangement of the working parts takesplace, but instantly cuts off the steam when a fracture takes place orwhen the water accumulates in the cylinder to a dangerous extent.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is The rod G withits nuts 6 and e in combination with the spring lever H having twofulcrums h and i and the spring catch lever L, the said rod G beingoperated (in case of accident) by the crosshead of the steam engine orother convenient working part of the same, and the said catch lever Lbeing connected to the eccentric rod or to a stop valve in the steampipe and the whole being arranged and constructed substan tially in themanner and for the purpose herein set forth.

JOHN T. ACKLEY.

Witnesses HENRY HowsoN, CHARLES D. FREEMAN.

